Aliyu Nuhu
Babangida speaks
"The President came here to ask for my support. I
had only 15minutes
prior notice before his arrival. When he came, I
took him to my bedroom
and had a chat with him. When he left his people
said I have endorsed
him. What am I supposed to do, deny it? No. For
me, that is not a
problem because I am a leader and what I say or
don't say will give
mileage to any party.
When he came here I told him that he made two
political mistakes: first
was to lose Rotimi, the Governor of Rivers State.
When the crisis was
going on, Governor Rotimi was here to pay me a
visit. I confronted him
and he spoke to me very honestly. Despite the
problems, he was not
ready to leave the PDP then. Gen. Obasanjo,
myself and a few others
intervened in the matter as leaders of the party
but the president did not
foresee the current situation and didn't take our
advice seriously. Rotimi
is one young man I like so much for his honesty.
He is very bold and
alway committed to his conviction.
I told president Jonathan that the second mistake
he made was to call
Obasanjo a motor pact taut. What an insult. That
was wrong and the
beginning of his problems. How many times had
he seen Obasanjo
insult Gowon. I told him that supporting him would
mean to endorse the
insult on Gen Obasanjo. I won't.
I advised him to go make peace with Governor
Rotimi and Gen.
Obasnjo. I told him it is almost getting late. I said
to him, you must visit
Obasanjo to apologize to him. I don't think that the
outcome was
favourable because it was already late.
A lot of persons have been calling me to raise
concern that the
President would use the Military to rig the election
and I say to them
that it is not likely. There is esprit d'coup. Most of
the soldiers you see
today are boys to our boys. President Jonathan
has no option than to
allow the election hold and to declare the winner. I
advised him on this.
Several other persons, both local and
international, have also advised
him on the consequences of using soldiers to
influence the election. I
am sure, he won't."
....IBB